He's "doing his best" to balance voting in the Senate to represent Kansas and his campaign for the presidency.
U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., stressed that message three times this morning during a short conference call with Kansas media when asked about missing several Senate votes since the session.
"What I am trying to do is balance the work back-and-forth. Being in the U.S. Senate, being on campaign trail, I'm trying to do the best I can," Brownback said.
He said other than the campaign he missed votes in January during his trip to Iraq and Afghanistan. Visiting Greensburg to inspect damage of the tornado-ravaged Kansas city also caused him to miss votes, Brownback said.
The Kansas senator - who is polling with support of about 2 percent of voters nationally in the GOP race - insisted his presidential bid was going well and again called himself the "tortoise in the race" - one of his favorite lines from the campaign trail.
"It's not a national race. It's a race through Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, so the effort is targeted and focused most in those areas," Brownback said of the early caucus and primaries.
After Tuesday night's debate performance in New Hampshire with nine other candidates, Brownback said he would introduce legislation today on dividing Iraq into three loosely federated states to help divide Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis and hopefully reduce violence there.
"We've go to get on the political track (in Iraq), and we don't have a sufficient political solution from this administration," Brownback said.
Comments
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jasonc_22 (anonymous) says…
end you bid for president, sammy, and go back to being what some people in Kansas elected you to be.
napoleon969 (anonymous) says…
If Sam wants to change jobs and become President then he ought to resign his current Senate seat. What other job lets you continue to be paid for one job (and not be doing it well) while working toward another job. Only in these United States! And we let these morons lead our county.
countrygirl (anonymous) says…
Either run or be a Senator. You can't do both and do right by the people you represent.
conservative (anonymous) says…
Napoleon and countrygirl, I agree with you both. That is exactly what Bob Dole did when he ran for president. He resigned as Senate Majority Leader. However it is pretty unusual. Just look at Kerry and Edwards, they both retained their positions in the senate while campaining in 2004. Gore remained VP and Leiberman remained in the Senate while campaigning in 2000. And it's on both sides of the fence. Quayle remained in the senate until he became VP in 1988.
purplesage (anonymous) says…
Resign? Just Brownback - or along with Clinton, Biden, a few governors, etc. etc.- let's be fair and balanced, now. No, it isn't right to occupy one elected position while running for another - or for that matter campaigning incessantly for the one already held. It is a problem with the system.
KEITHMILES05 (anonymous) says…
He can do what he wants now but next election boot his azz out.
mike_blur (Mike Blur) says…
Y'all just remember that when Brownie fails, he will run for KS senate again in 2010. And, of course, KS brain dead voters will vote him back in on hot button issues (abortion, gay marriage, etc).
And, of course, after being freshly elected in 2010, he will begin his run for the Presidency in 2012.
merrill (anonymous) says…
The only people Brownback can fool are Kansas voters. Other nationwide chatboards are not impressed with Brownback from any side of the aisle. One description was "goof ball".
merrill (anonymous) says…
Did anybody vote people into office so they could spend so much time fund raising and traveling the country. I did not. A book suggested they can spend 6-8 hours a day working on campaigns.
How can they know exactly what exactly in a bill that requires a vote. I say that is how the Patriot Act came about.
Want green collar jobs,alternative energy, jobs back to america and healthcare for all? Fire 99% of all elected officials!
Why is it Americans cannot elect a representative instead of a name from corporate america? What is the romance? Why do americans fall over themselves for political media stars and fat cats? Have we not learned that these people NEVER make things better they just continue the corporate welfare and watch american jobs go abroad. It really stinks!
The news media and corporate america do NOT need to decide who OUR candidates should be for local,state or federal level representation.
The media takes in a ton of cash during our election periods and play a huge role in selecting candidates for all sides of the aisle. Then THEY decide who should participate in televised debates as if no one else matters to the voters. Yes they also seem to decide which issues are important to voters and many times miss the mark. The media has become a large part of the special interest takeover of our process as if they know what is best for all of us. Voters support this takeover by voting for those candidates who also spend the most money and the question is why?
Campaigns go too long,spend way too much money and do not necessarily provide the best available. It is up to us to stop the nonsense at the voting booths on the 2008 ballot.
Not voting sends the wrong message and changes nothing.
Lets's demand a new system and vote in Fair Vote America : http://www.fairvote.org/irv/
Demand a change on the 2008 ballot.
The big money candidates are more beholden than ever to corporate special interests due to the very long nature of campaigns. How do they have time to do the job they were elected to do? We need public financing of campaigns. Citizens cannot afford special interest money campaigns for it is the citizens that get left out.
http://www.publicampaign.org/
Who would be against Public Funding? The special interest money providers and their bought and paid for politicians!
Who would be against Public Funding? The special interest money providers and their bought and paid for politicians
As was stated above these are the ones who will put out negative reasons why voters should not have more fair access to deciding how our country should be governed. Scare tactics have brainwashed many thus far for a system that would allow more individuals to run for office. I vote for public financing.
What's at stake? Special interest financiers might find themselves with less control and no corporate welfare.
mr_economy (anonymous) says…
Hope the Republicans who voted for Brownback are happy with his wonderful use of taxpayer-funded time pursuing a fairy-tale Presidential dream instead of the job he was elected to do. What ever happened to the Republican worship of fiscal conservatism/responsibility?
Like someone mentioned above, however, all he has to do is show up at some churches, assure the Christian Right that gays and abortionists will still burn in hell and that evolution is heretical, and he has another term guaranteed.
I would like to think a moderate Republican could come along and take a senate seat, but it seems the Republicans in this state prefer extreme ideological candidates to pragmatists.
mr_economy (anonymous) says…
The difference between Brownie and Kerry/Edwards - one is a fool who has managed to delude himself into believing he stands a chance at the Republican nomination, much less the Presidency itself, while the Kerry/Edwards duo ran a competitive campaign in 2004.
There would be grumbling about Brownback's actions regardless of whether or not he stood a chance at the nomination, but it is the near-impossibility of his crusade that gives validity to those complaints.
toefungus (anonymous) says…
Senator Brownback has a duty to think of his constituents. Yes, he has every right to run for President, as does very natural born citizen his age. But, Senator Brownback wants to be President so much, he has neglected the citizens of Kansas. He has a duty to both Republicans and Democrats to be a champion of Kansas and help this small population state be heard in Washington. The editor of this paper was lamenting the fact that leadership is so lacking at this time. Leadership is not just about talking but doing. What has Senator Brownback done for Kansas? Bringing to Kansas more Federal booty is not what we need the most, in my opinion. He needs to represent the strength and kindness of our people and expose our ability to give more than we receive. If he is successful, the bounty will come. If running for President interferes with is ability to champion Kansas, then he needs to withdraw and get to work representing Kansas.
Agnostick (anonymous) says…
francesferdinand, you've posted a dead link. If you can't run with the big dogs around here, please go elsewhere. Besides, it's not only "liberals" who are calling Brownback into question. But then, all you do is obsess and fantasize about liberals and Clinton 24/7/365...
merrill, thanks for the interesting links. I'll post one of my own, relating to this whacked-out primary scheme we have:
http://www.americanplan.org
Really: Who the frack are Iowa and New Hampshire, anyways? Who the frack says that they should lead off the primary season every frackin' time? I think the "American Plan," is okay, but personally, I'd rather just see a lottery system, where all 50 states are draw out of a hat. We have two primary elections, every Monday, starting @ first week of February. That should get us through to July, when the political parties all have their conventions. September 1st, the candidates for the general election are set in stone, and they have @ 10 weeks to run the race.
We draw names out of a hat in 2008 or 2012; the following round of primaries, the two states that were in Week #25 get moved up to Week #1, and everyone else gets move down a notch. Ad infinitum for the next millenium.
Does anybody remember the last time Kansas actually had a presidential primary?!? Shouldn't we have one every four years, just like Iowa, New Hampshire, and any of the other states?
Sorry, this is off-topic of Sammy BrownieHound--but merrill's links just got me started.
Sam, please keep running for president. We all need the comic relief.
Agnostick
agnostick@excite.com
http://www.americanplan.org
P.S. If you visit the American Plan website, check out the "2012 Sample Schedule." It's a PDF file, and well worth the few seconds to download it and check it out!
boltzmann (anonymous) says…
Actually, Bob Dole didn't resign from the Senate until June 11, 1996, which was 5 months before the election. We are now at 17 months before the election, which is a bit early in the game to expect someone to resign - not that I personally wouldn't be elated if he did. But like it or not, he is our Senator, and complaints at this stage about him not resigning are premature and unfair.
The big problem here, as I see it, is that the election season starts WAY too early. There should be some sort of rule that no-one can campaign until January immediately preceeding the election.
TJ_in_Lawrence (anonymous) says…
Who says that Brownback has short changed Kansas Voters? In what way? There seems to be a lot of smoke here, but no fire.
jbennett1128 (Jason Bennett) says…
We just need to convince other Kansans to vote for a true candidate, the Champion of Freedom, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. He's the man!
Agnostick (anonymous) says…
Okay, dammit, I admit it... after reading this, now I'm actually a little bit interested...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_paul
--Ag
blackwalnut (anonymous) says…
Kansas deserves Brownback. Our nation does not.
janeyb (anonymous) says…
Brownback originally promised that he favored term limits and would only be a two-term senator. He is a religious man who doesn't lie so this is his last senate term--of course he also originally ran as a moderate. That certainly has changed. Maybe he can run for governor?
crazyks (anonymous) says…
I saw Ron Paul on HBO recently, on Bill Maher's show. I have to say I was impressed.
mike_blur (Mike Blur) says…
Janey, Sandy Praeger would smoke Brownback for the guv'ship. (And I'm not at all a fan of Sandy P myself!)
JohnBrown (anonymous) says…
Sam did make a vote yesterday: he voted against the bill to restore habeus corpus in the senate's judiciary committee. You're doing a heck of job Brownie.